<h4>Chapter 611: A Great Kick</h4>


    "Captain, here Ie!" Yang Ze drew his greatsword. White fog burst forth from around him, surrounding the entire space.


    Zhang Lie nodded. "You''ve grown faster than before, and your maniption of water-attuned gic energy is deftly controlled. It''s just that—"


    Hundreds of sharks swam toward Zhang Lie.


    "—there''s nothing interesting about repeating the same attack on arger scale." Zhang Lie snapped his fingers. "[The Boundless de: Fade]!"


    Ripples of energy spread out from Zhang Lie, warping the space around him. Even without loosing a punch, he was able to cause his water-attuned gic energy to reverberate through the air, sending the fog and shark hordes flying.


    However, there was nothing in sight. Yang Ze had darted to Zhang Lie''s back, where he lifted his greatsword high over his head.


    Zhang Lie twisted his head and looked at him, at which point Yang Ze''s body dissipated like ripples disturbing a calm body of water. Zhang Lie was able to make use of his gic energy to conjure illusions; Yang Ze was even more skilled at this technique than he was.


    "I''m right here, Captain!" Under the effects of [Mirrored Refraction], Yang Ze seemed to phase in and out of existence.


    Zhang Lie had to admit that Yang Ze had a very deep understanding of [Mirrored Refraction]. He swam through the air, leaving buds of water behind. Zhang Lie had seen him use these buds to great effect in the past, and they were extremely annoying to deal with.


    Yang Ze had unusual skill at manipting his gic energy.


    Zhang Lie had no choice but to counter his technique with brute force. He punched toward a direction with nothing in sight, but Yang Ze, still swimming through the air, suddenly seemed shocked.


    Heunched a [Fists of the Silent Sea] of his own in yet another direction. The two punches didn''t seem as though they should intersect, but unusually, they did. The two fists met head-on, and Yang Ze''s body burst into another wave of ripples.


    Fang Yi swore—the Yang Ze who had appeared in mid-air was actually just a detailed illusion! And Zhang Lie was standing in an entirely different position than he had been just moments before.


    Fang Yi had been tricked precisely because of this technique that both Zhang Lie and Yang Ze seemed to have honed to an unbelievable level—he couldn''t help but think that they were opponents very well suited for each other.


    It waspletely impossible to determine whether the Yang Ze that he could see was real or fake; he had known that Yang Ze might pull something like that, but try as he might, he couldn''t find any tells.


    He might very well send his strongest attack against a clone, and present his back to what he thought was a clone but was actually Yang Ze himself.


    Yang Ze''sbat style was to wreath himself in illusions so detailed one couldn''t discern them from reality, and hepletely countered someone like Fang Yi, who relied on simple martial ability.


    The fight between Yang Ze and Zhang Lie was essentially one of technique, not strength.


    Everyone else was likewise captivated by the fight. All of them had thought that the Yang Ze in front of them was the real thing, but it really was difficult to tell. They hadn''t managed to distinguish Yang Ze from his clones, either.


    Indeed, the members of Team Zenith uniformly avoided fighting with Yang Ze as much as they could, because he was too disgusting an opponent.


    Bursts of water filled the battlefield, and the buds that Yang Ze had ced initially finally exploded. Lotus flowers made of pure water blossomed from the buds, each an intricate construct of gic energy.


    As the flowers bloomed, they released ripple after ripple of water-attuned gic energy, criss-crossing in mid-air and exploding into huge torrents of water. The battlefield soon became a roaring sea, and waves seemed to crest over the twobatants.


    Any ordinary hunter would have been torn to pieces by the water-attuned gic energy.


    This was a new technique that Yang Ze had developed by dedicated training: [The Lotus Blooms].


    He knew that this technique wouldn''t be able to hurt Zhang Lie; unless he had the time to amass a thousand such blooms, Zhang Lie could easily negate the force of this gic energy. He was a water-attuned hunter as well, and one who had more mastery over his element than Yang Ze.


    Unless Yang Ze had the time and energy to overwhelm Zhang Lie in one massive explosion, he wouldn''t be able to use this technique against him. The first time he had tried out the technique inbat, Zhang Lie allowed him to amass his gic energy andunch his technique at full strength.


    This was the one and only time that Zhang Lie had gotten serious during training; he eventually caused the blooms to dissipate with brute force.


    Ever since then, Zhang Lie hadn''t given him the time to charge up his technique to full power.


    As the lotus flowers blossomed, however, the density of water-attuned gic energy reached a critical point.


    "Have a taste of my de!" Yang Ze shouted. Water-attuned gic energy gathered around the twobatants. As the aura of [The Boundless de] exuded from Yang Ze, a giant shark emerged behind him, opening its maw wide so everyone could see its rows upon rows of sharp teeth. "Captain, here Ie! [The Boundless de: Shark''s Wrath]!"


    Yang Ze swung down with his greatsword, and the giant shark flicked its tail andunched itself toward Zhang Lie.


    Its maw wasrge enough that it seemed as though it could swallow up even earth and sky, and its sharp teeth and ferocious aura caused even the members of Team Zenith and Zhang Hanxiang to take a step back.


    If that shark were to smash against the ground, a huge wave of water would swamp them all.


    Zhang Lie smiled, reminiscing the past. "Do you remember a simr bout we had back in the Zenith Dojo?"


    He lifted an arm, and a serpent materialized around him. A ck serpent uncoiled from behind Zhang Lie''s back. As it raised its head, waves of dark energy flooded the room. As the serpent hissed, ck ripples spread out from its body, releasing waves of corrosive energy that scoured the battlefield.


    The members of Team Zenith had grown since then, but so had Zhang Lie. Even before the giant shark shed against the waves of corrosive energy, it grew weaker and weaker as it approached Zhang Lie.


    "[Fists of the Silent Sea: Fade]!" Zhang Lie punched forward, but Yang Ze didn''t dare to meet his attack fist for fist. He knew that doing so was asking to die—even with the best regenerative potion that the Yeluo n had to offer, he would be bedridden for a week at least.


    As the giant shark struck the serpent, its body dissolved into water-attuned gic energy. Zhang Lie kicked the air, sending Yang Ze, still thirty meters or so away, flying out of the battlefield


    and skidding over the ground for more than a hundred meters before his momentum waspletely sapped.